Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) joined MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Thursday for a wide-ranging and contentious interview focused on President Barack Obama's push for American intervention in the Syrian civil war. What followed was a tense and heated exchange between the two ideologically unaligned figures about the need for intervention in Syria, American foreign policy in general, and Paul's speaking before "anti-Semitic" groups.

Wagner opened by asking about a recent interview Paul conducted with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on his web-based interview program, but the conversation quickly turned to the push for intervention in Syria.

Paul questioned the "so-called gas deaths" in Syria supposedly ordered by President Bashar al-Assad and suggested that pro-intervention advocates have absolved the rebel factions fighting against Assad of any malfeasance.

"Do you really think President Obama is looking for a reason to go to war in Syria," Wagner asked She noted that the president has been reluctant to go to war.

"I think the pressure comes from the people around him," Paul said. "It might be contradicting some of his self-instincts."

Paul said that the leadership of both the Democratic and Republican Parties in Congress are behind Syrian intervention in opposition to rank-and-file opinion.